Fire Emblem: Blazing Flag
by Hawkatana
Summary: On the continent of Aegea, 4 Empires compete for dominance over the seas beyond. Disgraced noble Anton has lost everything in his life save for a single ship. He must gather a fleet to make his mark on the world by freeing it from piracy. But has he set in motion a great conspiracy in a world where the battles are no longer won with steel, but with gunpowder?
1. Tutorial

**Hawk: Okay, this is technically breaking site guidelines, but a lot of the terminology might not make sense to everyone, and if everything goes according to Keikaku, this will come out on the same day as the real chapter 1 (well, prologue). That, and I'm attempting to make this as close as I can to a real Fire Emblem game. So I guess this could be seen as a sort of "Tutorial", this is mainly gonna be about the classes of the characters, the new "features" and the main themes and inspirations behind this.**

 **Just something to be aware of, this is not me saying this will be the next main-series game. If an FE game comes out and is similar to this story, know that the whole thing is just a coincidence (One I'd be happy with, though). So without further ado, let's get into this.**

 **Classes:  
Kinda similarly to most games in the series not called Gaiden, Sacred Stones, Awakening, Fates or Echoes, there are no split promotions in Blazing Flag, but 3rd Tier units exist in their stead, as do converging promotions.  
To list them off:**

Lord → Captain → ?

Myrmidon → Swordmaster → Trueblade

Soldier → Pikeman → Halberdier

Fighter → Barbarian → Berserker

Archer → Sniper → Marksman

Thief → Rogue → Assassin

Gunslinger → Rifleman → Duellist

Mage → Sage → Scholar

Monk → Bishop → Saint

Arcanist → Sorcerer → Diabolist

Cleric → Troubadour → Valkyrie

Sword Armour (Knight) → Sentinel → Dreadnought

Lance Armour (Knight) → General → Dreadnought

Axe Armour (Knight) → General → Dreadnought

Bow Armour (Knight) → Sentinel → Dreadnought

Sword Knight (Cavalier) → Gold Knight → Great Knight

Lance Knight (Cavalier) → Silver Knight → Great Knight

Axe Knight (Cavalier) → Gold Knight→ Great Knight

Bow Knight (Cavalier) → Silver Knight → Great Knight

Musketeer → Dragoon → Conquistador

Mage Knight → Dark Knight → Wizard

Pegasus Knight → Falcon Knight → Seraph Knight

Wyvern Knight → Wyvern Lord → Dragon Master

Griffon Knight → Griffon Warden → Griffon Sentry

Manakete

Bard

Dancer

 **I tried to balance classes from Awakening/Fates, the older games (particularly the Tellius games) and some new ones. There are a few more than this, but the ones that _are_ missing are surprises.**

 **You may have noticed a new weapon type among the others: Guns. They're a lot like bows in a way, having a range of 2, but without the effectiveness against fliers. As a trade off however, they're more powerful than any other weapon type. They also interact with the weapon triangle in a unique way, when at 2-Range they gain advantage over Swords, Lances AND Axes. However at 1-Range, they're _weak_ to those weapons. To give you all the weapon types, there are: Swords, Lances, Axes, Bows, Guns, Knives, Light Magic, Dark Magic, Anima Magic Staves, and Dragonstones. Also unlike Gaiden & Fates, weapons break in this entry. As for the Weapon Triangle, I'd say the GBA games had a decent triangle. So I'd use that version of it.**

 **New mechanics added here are the "Fleet" and "Helm" mechanics. The Main Lord Anton has in his possession a rare build of ship, but that's not the only ship he can have. After defeating enemies in skirmishes, you're given 2 choices: Sink the ship and get gold from the bounty on the captain's head, or take the ship for yourself and add it to your fleet. You can have up to 3 ships in your fleet at any given time, with 5 back-ups. A ship is like a platform that can be moved and rotated by a unit if they're at the ship's helm, however it _will_ use up their turn. Using that, a unit is able to move the ship around any ocean tiles on the map, although how far the ship can move depends on the wind and where it's blowing.**

 **Ships, much like units, have stats, and are also able to level up and gain weapon ranks, which in their case, is Cannons.  
There are 4 types of ships:**

Flagship: you only get one of them, and if it's destroyed, it's Game Over.

Frigate: A lot of Defense and Resistance, but slow as hell.

Freighter: Speedy, but little in the way of Strength.

Galleon: A Glass Cannon. Low Defense, but high Strength

 **Ships can also be upgraded with Sails to increase movement, Cannons to increase strength and Plating to upgrade defenses. And with the exception of the Flagship (which you will get the name to soon), any ship can be renamed and have its flag customised. However, the Flagship has _another_ layer of customisation: much like My Castle from Fates, the Flagship acts as a base of sorts between battles where you can do things such as view supports, get furniture and watch prior cutscenes.**

 **You can dock in port towns to restock on supplies and weapons, as well as forge weapons to improve them, visit a fortune-teller to summon Einherjar (heroes from past Fire Emblem games such as Marth, Lyn, Chrom etc.), upgrade your ships and visit a tavern to hear rumors (how to access paralogues).**

 **Skills will be making a return here, as will Personal Skills. Those were one of the few things I actually liked about Fates. Supports will be back, but very few characters can achieve S - Support with each other. Similar to Valentia, the Pillar of Modern Warfare that is Pair-Up won't be present in this story. It's just too hard to balance correctly.**

 **Some major inspirations for this are Red Dead Redemption, in the way it's about a man in a world in which he no longer has any place. Final Fantasy XV, due to its fantasy world _not_ in a Medieval Europe-Fantasy, but set in a different level of technology. A discarded concept for Awakening that it would be set in the modern day, and even on _Mars_ at one point (** **I see what you did there, Intelligent Systems ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)). And of course, The Golden Age of Piracy from the 1650's to the 1720's. I also have to thank those who've made Fire Emblem mods for Civilization V: Brave New World for making me think of this question.**

 **Just something to keep in mind, there exist 2 continents in Blazing Flag with 8 territories between them. To list off the ones you need to know:**

Continent of Aegea

Empire of Castellon

Empire of Varese

Empire of Hevale

Holy Empire of Anatahr

Kingdom of Tsukimoto

Aurum Island

The Castellonian Sea

Pirate Kingdom of Barbarosia

Continent of Arbsol

Empire of Yuar

 **With all that out of the way, Welcome, me mateys, to Fire Emblem: Blazing Flag.**


	2. Prologue

**Hawk: Yo ho ho, you beautiful mother fuckers. And welcome, to my attempt at making my own Fire Emblem story. If you're reading this, than I'd assume you've read the introductory page. If you haven't, go back and read it, things might get pretty confusing.**

 **Okay, you're back? Great. Now that _that's_ out of the way, let's start the adventure.**

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Prologue: What's Left Behind

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The city of Palaid. A bustling city right in at the heart of the Castellonian Empire, built from the ground up with stone and marble. A hub for merchants of variable professions to barter and trade their goods. Noble houses within the city reside within their luxurious manses and villas, and live in wealth and splendor. Despite this, there are some secrets about this city no-one would like to discuss.

Sitting in the one of the city's many dark and dirty alleyways was a man, seemingly down on his luck and as if he hadn't eaten in days. He appeared to be around his early 40's, as seen by his longish and messy blue hair showing grey spots along the sides. The man had steely blue eyes that looked empty, and seemed to stare off into nothingness. Both his hair and his beard were shaggy and unkempt. His clothes looked like that of a noble's: a crimson coat over a beige suit and brown boots, but were dirty and torn in places. He had something long concealed by his side and a ring on his left hand. He just seemed to be sitting there in broad daylight.

"Oi Barge, look over 'ere!" a gruff voice called out.

The man looked up to see three men standing over him, brigands, all of them gruff and brutal-looking, tauntingly laughing at him. Two of them had axes in hand, a third had a knife and all of them were looking for trouble.

A fourth man wearing a tattered shirt walked towards them. He had messy blonde hair, brown eyes and was missing a tooth. He was carrying a bigger axe than the rest of his companions.

"Well, what've we got 'ere, boys? Some sorry drunk who lost 'is way home from the pub?" He chuckled and knelt down to the man. "This is _our_ territory, mate. If ya wanna take a rest 'ere, ya better pay up!"

The man said nothing and looked down again.

"I'd say somethin' mate, ol' Barge 'ere don't take no for an answer!"

Still no response from the man.

Barge chuckled again. "Maybe ya don't understand. 'round these 'ere parts, if I want somethin'..." His smile grew even more twisted. "I get it, no matter who or what gets in my way."

Again, the man said nothing.

Barge was now visibly furious. He picked the man up by his collar and slammed him against the wall. "Who the bloody 'ell do ya think ya think you are?! I'll 'ave ya know I've killed four whole squads of knights! So don't go tryin' anythin' funny!"

"...ton." The man dispassionately mumbled.

"Whas' dat? Can't hear ya, mate!" One of Barge's goons taunted.

"Anton." The man managed to say more clearly.

Barge seemed to calm down a little. "Anton, eh? Doesn't sound like a name you'd see over 'ere. Okay then Anton, the minimum amount for staying 'round 'ere is 15 gold per hour!"

Anton's empty stare grew more focused on Barge and his thugs. "I'm afraid I don't even have a single gold." He said softly without any fear in his voice.

"No gold, huh?" Barge shook his head. "A real shame. That means we now hafta kill ya." He laughed and threw Anton over to the other brigands. "Get 'im, boys."

"Finally, 'been waitin' for this." A brigand pulled out his axe and sauntered towards Anton. He was about to swing it overhead but noticed something sharp cut through his throat: a rapier.

The brigand screamed in agony, as Barge and his other men looked on in surprise. Anton spun around, slicing upwards and killing him as blood sprayed from his wounds.

"What it could _also_ mean, Barge, is that you should back off right now if you value your life." Anton held out his sword and assumed an aggressive stance.

Barge backed away in shock. "Wha? A n-noble?! The 'ell are _you_ doin' 'ere?!"

Once again, Anton said nothing.

Barge's shocked expression slowly turned into a twisted, toothy grin. "The strong an' silent type, eh? Well then, come get some! I'll show you they don't call me Barge the Beast for nothin'!"

A second brigand rushed towards Anton screaming and swung his axe with great force. Anton effortlessly dodged the axe and darted towards the knife-wielding thug, who only barely managed to parry Anton's sword.

"Wait! Wait! I-I don't wanna die! Please!" He pleaded.

"Fine then." Anton responded, as he slashed him across his hand, severing several tendons. The brigand screamed loudly as he dropped his knife and fell to the ground, before feebly running off in a sobbing mess.

Anton then felt a sharp pain in his back as the other brigand slammed his axe down into his shoulder. He turned around and impaled the bandit through the stomach, followed by twisting his blade.

"*pant* Are... Are you just going to stand there? I thought there was a reason they call you the Beast. *pant*" Anton said, only barely able to keep his stance straight.

Barge pulled out his axe and tightened his grip on it. "Awright then, ya asked for it!"

He rushed towards Anton like an enraged bull before swinging his weapon like a hurricane. Anton just managed to duck at the last second as the axe slammed into a nearby wall, breaking off a stone. Barge sneered at him at swung downwards at him.

Anton reacted quickly and rolled off to the left. He then thrust his rapier into Barge's shoulder, only for it to seemingly do nothing.

"Sorry mate, but that barely even tickles!" Barge laughed again as he swung overhead. Anton just managed to hold it off with his sword.

"Doncha get it, mate? Like I said: when I want somethin'..." Anton felt the axe getting heavier and harder to hold, as Barge continued to back him into a corner. "I get it. No matter what!" He kicked Anton in the stomach, causing him to fall backwards.

"Anythin' ya wanna say now, mate? You're not gonna get a chance after this." Barge taunted, readying his axe to strike. Anton managed to pick himself up as he stared Barge down, his face changing from forlorn, but stoic into pure frustration. He only had one thing to say to Barge.

"Get _out of my way_!" Running on adrenaline, he dashed towards Barge at almost inhuman speeds and lunged and sliced at him all over his body, before ending things once and for all by stabbing him in the chest.

"Wha...? Bu-But how...? I never wanted... This..." Barge stumbled backwards and fell over dead.

Anton sheathed his sword. "I've gotten sloppy." He sighed under his breath. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vulnerary and a small parchment of paper. He poured the salve onto the paper and applied it to his shoulder wound. It stung, but it would lessen the bleeding and heal him faster.

He walked over to Barge's lifeless corpse and checked his pockets for any money. "He's not going to miss this." He said as he found around 500 gold in his front pocket.

"Stealing from ruffians, are we?" A female voice called out.

Anton looked up to see a fit-looking woman about as old as himself on a majestic white stallion in front of him. She had red hair done up in a bun at the back and fiery red eyes. She was wearing a red military coat with 2 white sashes and silver pauldrons over her shoulders. She was holding a Silver Lance and was accompanied by 2 soldiers holding muskets.

"Madeline?" Anton immediately recognised her.

Madeline's eyes widened. "Anton?!" She leaped off her horse and ran towards him. "Oh gods, what happened to you? Where's Catherine and Dante?" She grabbed onto him by the shoulders.

Anton recalled moments he'd much rather forget. Scenes of a great fire, a house consumed in flames and a woman and child so close, yet so far all raced through his mind as tears rolled down his face.

"I... I'd rather not talk about it right now." He was shaking now. His fists were firmly clenched. He broke down into tears and collapsed into her arms. Whatever man Madeline knew before, Anton was now an empty shell of him.

"Come on. Let's get you cleaned up." She walked back over to her horse and remounted it before signalling Anton to follow her. The two of them walked into the main streets, where the backalleys opened up to a busy lane filled with vendours and entertainers.

Anton sighed deeply and looked up at the bright sun, as if to seek guidance on a life he gave up on.

 _End of Prologue_

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 **Hawk: This is the part of the chapter where I show you guys stuff about the Chapter. Just know that when doing the characters, I'm not going to add Base Stats or Growth Rates, because I wouldn't have a clue on how to balance that.**

* * *

Chapter Information

Objective: Rout the Enemy

Recruitable Character(s):  
Anton (Lord, Level 1)

Boss(es):  
Barge (Fighter, Level 1)  
 _A Brigand who knows what he wants._

Anton  
Description: _A Disgraced Noble who seeks a new meaning to his life._  
Gender: Male  
Age: 43  
Class: Lord  
Starting Level: 1  
English V/A: Ian Sinclair  
Japanese V/A: Takehito Koyasu

 **Hawk: So, how did you enjoy the beginning of this little venture into a different type of story for FE? Feel free to let me know down below. I'll be seeing you guys later!**


End file.
